One of the classic “Adventurer” range of Rogue Trader era WH40K miniatures, this model is a recent acquisition via Jason at the “Rogue Heresy” blog (thanks Jason!). Its a quaint sculpt featuring a lot of the charm and some of the less precise sculpting common in toy soldiers of the era.

Old school.

I spent a while thinking about what colour was appropriate for the attire of a Space Eunuch. I thought about various fictional eunuchs but didnt find anything that was appropriate. I looked up historical eunuchs to see if any colours were traditionally associated with the phenomena in various cultures, but quickly regretted that: unsurprisingly the history of eunuchs is grim reading.

So in the end I decided to go with orange. Orange is a sci-fi sort of colour and I had a few newish orange paints that I wanted to try out. I think that it worked out pretty well. It didnt occur to me until a “Zed” (from Zardoz) miniature arrived in the post this morning that the scheme matches it closely, bare legs and everything. I guess that Zed and Milo will have to be buddies.

Inquisitor Jodorowsky accompanied by faithful manservant.

Speaking of flesh, I had some problems painting it here. I had to re-do quite a lot of the bare skin to get it even to the stage that it is at now, which is sub par. I will have to up my game a bit regarding painting Caucasian flesh. What I am currently coming up with is taking too long and not giving me the results that I am looking for: it simply isnt working.

Still, Im looking forward to getting the Space Eunuch on the table. Its a fun old figure.

The skin on the rear is a bit rougher than the front and the forehead is a quite a bit of a fudge really. The Adventurer range is fantastic though. It’s proving very satisfying to go back and paint some of these after procrastinating for so long. I have a handful, but I am going to have to locate a few more.

Looks great, he is not an easy model to paint, I haven’t managed to paint my one that I haven’t stripped later in the 20 odd years I have owned him :), he is currently undercoated black again. The eyebrows are really standout for me and really give him some personality.

The eyebrows went through a few different iterations before I settled on the absurd dark green shown, somewhere between House Harkonnen, Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Milo O’Shea exists the Space Eunuch 🙂

There are a few areas that are very hard to discern on the model. It took me ages to work out that the left hand appears to be holding… something. Painting the hand before I worked that out was difficult.

Though positively sunny compared to even the lightest fluff about the Imperium of Man. So you got that going for you, which is nice. On the upside, as you doubtless read, a loyal and talented eunuch could attain great power and status in several ancient cultures – their loyalty to their master or nation was believed to be greater because they had no blood heirs of their own. It’s totally the kind of twisted logic the Imperium would use.

This is yet another classic style paint job, I’m looking forward to what you do with Zed 🙂

The 41st Millennium did coin the “grimdark” term after all, so unpleasant concepts are its bread and butter. Reading about historical wars and engagements is far less escapist than reading about the latest dust up in the Segmentum Obscurus all the same.

Similarly, while the eunuch concept couldnt fit in better in the game setting, the reality of what was involved historically is extremely unpleasant, so I try not to think about it. Its a subtle difference, but I like like my xenophobic, intolerant, hatemongering hobby world to be escapist, rather than reference the unpleasant elements of human history.

Not that it stopped me from painting up a Space Eunuch you understand 😀

Although the scheme used above doesnt match Zed as he appeared in Zardoz exactly, I will likely paint his mankini the same way that I painted the eunuchs outfit. I think that they will make an amusing duo 🙂

😀 Thanks Mattias. Kinky scuba diver is exactly what he looks like. There is something Jacques Cousteau/The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou about the colour and the bare legs.

I regularly paint sci-fi figures that are designed to be naked or close to naked as if they are wearing skintight outfits. Its not so much latent Irish Catholic guilt, more that it seems to make slightly more sense in some contexts. Most of the miniatures are going into battle zones after all, so a pair of trousers is usually a good idea. I had originally intended to apply the same logic here.

The thing is, I figured that I already have numerous spec-ops/space gladiators/astro ninjas in tight, body hugging outfits and I only have one miniature designated as a “Space Eunuch”. I figured that I would go with bare legs that emphasise the the defining (lack of) feature.

He’s come up well, and an interesting conversation as well. I’m not sure what I should do with mine. Painted in the heyday of Necromunda, he’s showing his age a bit. Interestingly, I also painted him mostly-naked, though with white armour (is that how they showed him in CA? Perhaps I just copied the house paintjob?) Certainly it just never occurred to me to paint him any other way than almost-naked…

I just checked to old advert for the Adventurers and it turns out that the house scheme is very close to the one that I went for in fact. Odd as I am usually aware of that sort of thing and try to avoid it. That said, he does look good in orange.

I have a feeling that I have seen that figure painted in a white outfit somewhere too. Maybe it was one of the other big-boned Adventurers that look a little like him.